[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 126 (Monday, July 28, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S7567]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S7567]]
                           NAZI WAR CRIMINALS

  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today to commend Dr. Ephraim Zuroff 
and the Simon Wiesenthal Center for their efforts to track down the 
last Nazi war criminals from World War II. Their work is enormously 
important, both in bringing the guilty to justice and preventing future 
acts of genocide. The statute of limitations does not--must not--expire 
on crimes against humanity. Earlier this year, I introduced the World 
War II War Crimes Accountability Act with Sen. Nelson, which I hope 
will help Dr. Zuroff and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in their noble 
effort.
  The barbarity of those crimes still echoes today, more than 63 years 
after the end of the war. June 28 of this year, for example, marked the 
94th birthday of Dr. Aribert Heim, the second-most wanted Nazi war 
criminal still believed to be at large. Dr. Heim, a former SS 
concentration camp doctor, was nicknamed ``Dr. Death'' for his brutal 
and sadistic experiments on camp inmates. At Mauthausen, the camp where 
he committed his worst crimes, Dr. Heim was known for murdering inmates 
by injecting toxins directly into their hearts.
  Unfortunately, despite the particularly heinous nature of Dr. Heim's 
crimes, investigators into Heim's whereabouts can still face official 
obstructionism. Germany, for example, is one of the few countries that 
still have an active Nazi-hunting unit. However, this team's efforts 
have been impeded by the repeated refusals of the presiding German 
judge to allow the police task force sufficient investigative latitude. 
Such procedures, like wiretaps on suspected Heim associates, are 
granted in murder cases in Germany--just not, apparently, in mass-
murder cases like Dr. Heim. This is this not the only instance of 
German bureaucratic obstructionism, which have been carefully monitored 
by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Correspondingly, in the center's 2007 
Annual Report on Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War 
Criminals, Germany received a failing grade--its only failing grade 
since the report was first published in 2001. The German government 
should do its utmost to reverse this pattern before it becomes a trend.
  The Simon Wiesenthal Center launched Operation: Last Chance in 2002, 
to identify and assist in the prosecution of the remaining Nazi war 
criminals still at large. Dr. Zuroff, who has been leading this effort, 
should be highly commended for his outstanding efforts in bringing the 
most guilty Nazis to justice.
  Even today, the crimes of Heim and the Nazi regime strain our 
understanding of hate. Hitler's Germany today is remembered only for 
its brutality, its mantra of genocide, and its culture of racism. And 
those last Nazis, who are waiting out their last days under the coming 
twilight, must not be allowed to go quietly into the night, as did too 
many of their victims. For the souls that were lost, and even more for 
those that remain, there must be justice. I commend Dr. Zuroff and the 
Simon Wiesenthal Center in the highest possible terms, and urge the 
United States Government to do all it can to help them in their cause.

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